Page 25 of Pain

More hoarse muttering broke out, and this time, I recognized the voice. That was Saraya in there.

This was the room Mandy had given her. This close to my own room.

Something moved into my vision, and I realized that I’d lifted my hand to brush my fingertips across the wood of her door. I shook myself and dropped my hand. Fuck, I was losing my mind.

While she was in there screaming.

I tried the doorknob and found it unlocked—a surprise, given her situation here. Turning it quietly, I pushed the door open, holding my breath and praying that she was asleep rather than playing a video game or something.

Our situation was complicated enough. Walking right into her bedroom without knocking first would just make it even muddier.

Another scream had me abandoning all caution, though, and I threw the door the rest of the way open and rushed toward her, my hands already reaching for the figure on the bed. She was wrapped up in a blanket but tossing and turning like she’d actually become trapped in it, her eyes squeezed shut and her mouth muttering a string of curses. I slid into bed behind her and pulled her to me, tucking her small body into mine and wrapping my arms around her.

“Shh,” I whispered. “Shush, Saraya, it’s me. You’re okay. You’re okay.”

The girl turned and nuzzled into me, her face in my neck and her legs burrowing between mine as the blanket around her loosened enough to allow for movement. And heaven above me, I’d never experienced anything like it. She was tiny and very, very warm, her cheeks wet with tears and her breathing quick and erratic. She felt like a very small, very panicked child seeking protection, and it did something to me. My heart expanded to twice its normal side in something that felt both amazing and painful at the same time, and my arms tightened around her, the reflex so natural that I didn’t even think about it.

“Knight?” she whispered against my neck.

My heart grew another three sizes.

“I’m here,” I whispered back. “I’m right here. No one’s going to get you.”

“I was dreaming,” she said.

“I heard you,” I admitted. “Bad dream?”

“Bad dream.”

I closed my mind and held her, doing everything I could to keep my mind from going any further than the heat building between us. I didn’t want to think about how it felt to have her in my arms. Didn’t want to think about the pressure building in my lower back and my cock. Definitely, definitely didn’t want to think about how badly I wanted to strip all of our clothes off and comfort her in an entirely different way.

I was just here to make her feel better because she’d been having a bad dream. I was here to protect her, not make her life even more complicated.

I wasn’t going to take it any further than it had already gone.

And speaking of that, I needed to get out of here before anyone else caught me. The club had voted to keep her here and protect her, but that didn’t mean they’d understand if someone saw me leaving her room in the middle of the night.

“Are you okay now?” I asked, wondering if she’d fallen back asleep—and if so, whether I could leave her.

There was no answer, and I took that to be answer enough. She’d been talking to me just a moment ago, and if she wasn’t now, surely that meant she’d fallen back asleep. Right?

Right.

I started to move back from her, loosening my arms and scooting my legs away from hers. Trying to move as slowly as possible while still effectively disentangling myself from her.

She immediately protested and reached up to wind her arms around my neck, her face pressing harder into my neck. “Stay,” she moaned. “Don’t leave me. Please.”

I froze and tried very, very hard not to breathe. Because dammit, there were at least a million reasons I couldn’t be found in here. A million more that I shouldn’t be in here at all.

And ten times as many about why I should stay as far away from her as possible.

And instead, I was in her bed, wrapped around her and holding her close to me, my cock growing harder by the moment and a balloon expanding in my chest like someone was doing some sort of heart surgery on me.

Shit.

I was in very, very big trouble. But now that she’d asked me to stay, I didn’t think I could leave.

“Okay,” I whispered.